There is no other creature on earth, which is as possessive as the human beings are. We want to possess everything which may seem beautiful, everything which sounds soothing, everything which tastes palatable... we cannot wait to think about the cost, we have to get them by hook or by crook. If we cannot move the Kanchanjhanga to our drawing room, then we have to at least get its replica (even if it only on a glossy sheet of paper) framed on the walls of the room. If Taj Mahal cannot come to my study, then I move the picture of it to wherever I wish it to be! There is an insatiable thirst in human beings to possess whatever is good!
It is my personal conviction that nature is at her best, in her habitat! The real beauty of a freshly-bloomed blossom is not when it sits on the table, with an ornate vase holding it tightly, but when it sways from its plant. The blossom may feel feeble and weak, when hanging recklessly from the plant, but it adds to the overall beauty that the plant may evoke in a person. If the flower plants had a voice to speak out, they may plead with human beings not to sever them from the plant! But I do understand if we stop plucking flowers, our life would be quite different.
We might try our best to recreate natural surroundings to accomodate the lovely flowers we admire and treasure, but any artificial surrounding cannot produce the natural results as we would wish to. Taming a ferocious tiger, putting her behind a celler and asking her to pretend to be ferocious in a zoological garden is asking for too much. You cannot put a pair of love birds inside a cage, and ask them to make love! If that were true, then the earth may not be the best place for human beings to be what we truly are!
There is a move among eco-conscious men and women today not to offer flowers to welcome dignitories, but instead they would love to offer each of the dignitories with a flower pot, so that they need not keep the bouquet and throw it in the dustbin the next day, but care for the plant, and enjoy the flowers it may yield! Keeping flower plants in a pot is surely an artificial arrangement, but what prevents them from transferring the plant to the soil back at home? If more and more people were to do this, then we may find more flowers on the plants dancing to the tune of the wind and rain, creating a thousand magical moments in our mindscreen.
I am not a fanatic animal lover, like some people are, who might go to any extent to show that a lot of violence is done to animals, and there are non-vegetarian animal-lovers too, which is an oxymoron. But I would love not to pluck flowers so that we can feast our eyes. Thank God, there are boards in public gardens, requesting people not to pluck flowers, because if I pluck a flower, only I may enjoy the beauty of the flower; but if the flower continues to be on the plant, more people will be able to be charmed by its beauty. Next time, when my hand rushes to pluck a flower... I hope to pause and let the flower be where it is, but I may have a long look at it, appreciating its beauty and fragrance!
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